November 10, Austin Convention Center

When we left the Stitch Fashion Show and Guerrilla Craft Bazaar in the last gasps of Saturday night with the spats-like leg-warmers we had reclaimed from some other soul's long-forgotten sweater sleeves, we weren't feeling thrifty or clever, or even a little crunchy. Instead, the event, considered as the sum of its impressive and varied parts, brought sexy back to the sewing table. Women of every age, shape, size, and level of style-consciousness could, for once, all feel sexy for the same reason. What used to be, "It's not how you look, it's what you think," mutated to, "It's not how you look, it's who you wear," tonight becomes, "We like how you look, but it's really about what you make." Just to note, there were some beautiful male creatures there as well, but you know who you are.

What follows here is a fairly straight recounting of our impressions, as the sudden need for surger, notions, and abandoned knitwear is too seductive to ignore. On the way out we actually heard people musing about what they could do with their bright green admit-bracelets.

I feel like we're starting to reach some turning points in our Club Chronicle/Team Zen Training. Our workouts are definitely getting more intense. No more of just doing some laps at Town Lake. This weekends workout consisted of doing a 10 minute warm up walk/jog, then drills, then core work. I would have normally called it quits after that 10 minute warm up! But we survived...being told that next weekends workout will be a 3-5 mile run. Yeah, you read that correctly, 3-5 mile RUN. I'm nervous to say the least. It's time to get out this week and log some running time or next week will be really awful for me! As for my attempt at "eating healthy", you can say it's had it's ups and downs. My dad visited over the weekend, which I took as a free pass to eat whatever I wanted. Let's just say a road trip to a local German festival resulted in me trying a variety of sausage, funnel cakes, beer and some other delicious treats. I did stay away from the fried cheesecake (although I will admit I'm still curious about how that would have worked...) Here's hoping to the start of a more healthy week! That's all for now, until next week...here's hoping I log some miles!

The Texans must be grateful for the bye week. They have lost five of their last seven, are severely injury-depleted with a shallow roster, and have suffered another embarrassing home loss to the Titans, followed by an an even more embarrassing loss to the Chargers the next week. They barely beat the winless Dolphins with a last-minute Kris Brown field goal and were beaten by the Vick-less Falcons. They started the season on 2-0 high but lost the services of their best player, wide receiver Andre Johnson, after week two and haven't looked the same since. They've got the other guy they passed over for Mario Williams coming in next week, so you know they'll playing for more than a paycheck as the Saints roll into Reliant Sunday, Nov. 18. I'll be there. Hope the Texans decide to show up, too.

Here's a look at the Texans' performance thus far …

I’m sore today. I’m very sore. Yesterday at our workout, we worked our core. I wrote a poem about it (ahem):

Yesterday I worked my core
Therefore
Today, I am very sore.
I wanted to workout more,
Instead I’ll pass out on the floor.

Did you like it? It’s a Cassandra original.

Back in the day (about four or five years ago), I had some killer ab muscles. I used to go to the gym almost every day and do 500 crunches easily. I didn’t have a six-pack, but I had a Britney Spears flat stomach. And much like Britney’s stomach these days, my flat stomach is gone. (That’s the only thing I have in common with Britney, FYI. I don’t cruise around to Starbuck and gas stations, and unlike Brit-brit, I like wearing underwear.)

We did our intervals again yesterday, and I managed to run the lengths I was supposed to run (unlike last time when I had to start walking half-way through). Christi was running with me at the end, pushing me and cheering me on. Honestly, if she wasn’t behind me, I think I would have stopped running. I feel like I’m building up my stamina, finally getting to a point where my walking/jogging ratio averages 60/40, and on a good day it’s 50/50.

I deserve a treat for my good work. I’m going to get a banana split. Bye.

In college, I had a discussion with a friend who was a Biology major, about the strange biological drive of humans versus other animals.

Squirrels, for example, have a biologically-driven craving for nuts, and their internal programming tells them to spend their days building nests for their young -- because these are the foods and activities that help a squirrel participate in prolonging its own future and that of its entire squirrelly race.

So we wondered, why do humans crave potato chips and hot dogs, and choose to spend a disproportionate amount of time watching television or otherwise slothing around -- when we *know* that these foods and activities work counter to a bright future? Are humans biologically programmed for self-destruction?

During our workout yesterday, I felt certain that at least I must be.

After warm-up drills, our assignment was to make 3 laps of the "Stevie Ray Vaughn loop" (AKA - from the Run-Tex coolers, to the Stevie statue, take a left toward Palmer Auditorium, then a left toward Hooters - don't stop for wings, instead take another left back to the Run-Tex coolers...and repeat 3 times.) In each quarter-leg of these laps, we were to alternate running at 75% capacity, and walking at a resting pace.

And, at every junction between the quarter-legs of my laps, I had to entirely reconvince myself that this activity was something I was going to do -- not because I was hurting or particularly winded, I just didn't want to. At all. I wanted not to so badly that the voice in my mind telling me not to seemed like the voice of reason, like a biological kind of truth that I shouldn't resist.

As I reasoned, or unreasoned, my way through all twelve quater-laps, I chatted with the internal voice that was telling me exercise is bad. Self, I said to myself, you know that exercise is a good thing, just keep going. I made it through the laps by deciding that, as a first-time trainer, it is natural that my body isn't programmed to like exercise.

Since this logic allowed me to complete the task at hand, I should probably have been satisfied and stopped thinking. But, you might have noticed that over-thinking things is one of my favorite past-times.

And here, my spiderweb of overthought gets a little confusing, but I think it's a requirement of all Nature v. Nurture discussions that one's arguments turn inside out on each other. Here I go...

I don't like salad dressing. Nope, not even ranch. It's not that salad dressing tastes bad to me, and I think I could even grow to like it if I tried. But as it stands, I didn't have salad dressing as a kid, so I was trained to like the taste of plain-old, unslathered vegetables. Likewise, I realize, I'm not a first-time trainer in exercise -- I've just been training, and hard, in not exercising, for most of my life.

From this logic, I take two comforting truths: 1- I am already an accomplished trainer (just been training in the wrong activity,) and so facing this challenge need not require assuming a new identity; and 2- It is still possible that my body has a natural drive to exercise. And maybe this is true for lots of us.

I'm going to allow myself not to over-think how this argument might apply to other topics that get discussed in terms of Nature v. Nurture, though I'm sure it's possible to read-in some conclusions. Please understand that any such conclusions are entirely unintended by the author -- my intention is only to search every source to determine how I will run the Trail of Lights and have fun doing it.

Lizzie

When my husband came home this afternoon (actually, the condo where we're temporarily staying) he said, you know you got published in the Chronicle? The letter to the editor I posted on one of my previous posts here actually made it in.









( http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Community/Postmarks?StartTime=2007-10-26 , opposing viewpoints )

Funny thing when you get 'published' is not the wee vain part in you that says, aHA! My name is in print. It's interesting to hear who actually has read it and acknowledges it. (how politically correct, I mean 'who tells you that they read it') My first time I 'got published' was a letter to the editor of the Austin-American Statesman. Since I emailed it in, they require you to have your email attached to it so naturally, I got "acknowledged"!

Not too much hate mail thank goodness, and I even made a friend with a very insightful gentleman who has encouraged me to become American and join one of the two parties. He dismissed my notion of wanting to be out there as an Independent, saying that, in the history of this country, no third party candidate has had enough influence to encourage change. However, the alternative of joining up with one of the two still does not appeal to me. I'm too much of an Independent thinker. I'd like to think that with my Dutch background, it is even more inevitable to speak one's mind. Toe-ing (sp?) the party line would be very difficult for me to do.

Since I'm still not American (the last 8yrs or so haven't been very encouraging), so it won't really matter. But political and politically independent I will always be. That is why I encourage anyone to check on their representative, those people in Congress regardless of their affiliation. How independent are they? With the upcoming election, a little thought and research would be appreciated.

Thinking independently should be natural for an American. At least, isn't it something any American prides her/himself on? Somehow Americans must not be as proud as they claim to be. Independence is not a state of affairs, but a state of being. That is why there are the checks and balances (see Jim Hightowers article: http://www.austinchronicle.com/gyrobase/Issue/column?oid=oid%3A558972)

The current state of being seems to be more of laziness, wanting to be entertained or fed easy to swallow info nuggets. Don't just follow the lemmings of whatever your party is, but stop to think for yourself. At least you can vote. Make it count.

Please.

And I quoth:

"Heard they'd do anything for a Klondike
Well I'd do anything for a blonde dyke
And she'll do anything for the limelight
And we'll do anything when the time's right"
– Kanye West, Stronger

Really, Kanye? I thought we were cool.

I think we're fighting now.















Let's make out.

I'm a lighting fanatic. So much so, that my place is in danger of being too well lit!

But how can I resist a levitating lamp by upstart design firm Crealev?

Answer: I can't.

This is my cry for help.

Opponents of the proposed Wal-Mart at Northcross suffered a minor setback yesterday when Judge Margaret Cooper of the 353rd District Court rejected the Allandale Neighborhood Association's request for summary judgment in its suit to have Lincoln Property's site plan overturned. The request hinged on a claim that proper public hearings were not conducted with regards to the garden center planned for the Wal-Mart; Cooper said that garden center qualified as an "accessory use" that didn't require hearings. However, the consolidated suit filed by ANA and Responsible Growth for Northcross is still slated to go to trial Nov. 13. In a statement, RG4N said, "The ruling on ANA's motion does not affect a claim RG4N made about the proposed garden center nor does it affect RG4N's other three claims. We remain confident that we have a winning case. We expect a huge turnout at Feisty Fest this Sunday afternoon at the Triangle as our supporters from all over Austin send a message to the City that 'business as usual' is not acceptable anymore. It is still not a done deal."